After the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, the head of the Secret Service admitted that her agency had failed. She said this at a congressional hearing.
The head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, has admitted that her agency failed to prevent the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump. “We failed,” Cheatle said on Monday at a hearing in the US Congress. The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting current and former presidents, has been under massive pressure since the assassination attempt on Trump on July 13, which he barely survived.
The assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in the state of Pennsylvania represents the “most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades,” said Cheatle. As head of the agency, she takes “full responsibility for any security breach.”
“This tragedy was preventable,” said Republican committee chairman James Comer at the opening of the hearing. He called on Cheatle to resign. The Secret Service has a “zero-error mission,” said Comer. The agency failed on July 13 and in the days leading up to the campaign event.
Republican Representative Michael Turner of Ohio also called on the agency chief to resign. “Not only should you resign, but if you refuse, President (Joe) Biden must fire you because his life, the lives of Donald Trump and all the other people you protect are in danger,” he said.
Cheatle was appointed head of the Secret Service by Biden in 2022. She had previously worked for the agency for 27 years before becoming chief of security for the North American division of beverage company PepsiCo in 2021.
Trump was shot at at a campaign event in the state of Pennsylvania. The alleged perpetrator was only able to position himself with his semi-automatic rifle about 150 meters away from the lectern. Trump, who has since been named the Republican presidential candidate, barely survived the attack; a bullet hit him in the right ear. The alleged perpetrator and a man in the audience were killed.